Tuesday, 22 March 2011

We had two new species for our yard list today. I actually saw this one yesterday but it was the briefest of glimpses and it was flying with a pair of Cardinals. I was pretty sure it was a Pyrrhuloxia but I wanted a better sighting just to be 100% sure. And here he is, obligingly perching for me to confirm his identity.

Monday, 21 March 2011

This daunting character is a longhorn beetle, common name Solitary Black Bycid, scientific name Stenaspis solitaria they feed on acacia and mesquite.

A correction to this post - this is in fact a cactus longhorn,Moneleima gigas.Not being a bug person when this character dropped from a mesquite in the middle of the day it seemed to be saying that it was Stenaspis solitaria. My bug guide wasn't detailed enough to illustrate the difference between the two. As Moneleima gigas is usually found on prickly pear or cholla at dusk you can understand my confusion. Luckily my friendly neighbourhood 'bug oracle' - Doug has both specimens in his collection and as soon as I saw them together I realised my mistake. Thanks for your help Doug :)

We have a small piece of land nestled up against the mountains and this blog is a pictorial record of what occurs there. My only rule, if it doesn't take place on our land - it doesn't get on the blog.